Propeller for boats



T. J. FRAZIER Sept. 6, 1966 PROPELLER FOR BOAT S 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 15, 1965 INVENTOR.

T. J. FRAZIER BY Mm/ mud @446 j ATTORNEY Sept. 6, 1966 T. .1 FRAZIER PROPELLER FOR BOATS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 15, 1965 HEM INVENTOR T. J. FRAZlER United States Patent 3,270,820 PROPELLER FOR BOATS Thomas J. Frazier, 2680 Ashford Road NE, Atlanta, Ga. Filed Apr. 15, 1965, Ser. No. 448,326 4 Claims. (Cl. 170-13521) This invention relates to impellers and is particularly concerned with an epi-cyclic drive for impellers by which a pair of impeller blades are rotated in equal and opposite directions about a common axis as an incident to the rotation of such axis. While the application of an epi-cyclic drive for impellers may be variously applied for a wide variety of fluid propulsion applications, in its present form the invention is particularly concerned with a drive for the propellers of boats.

In general terms, the mechanism of the present invention may be broadly defined as including means for rotatably supporting a pair of individually rotatable propeller blades for simultaneous rotation in equal and opposite directions about a common axis as an incident to the rotation of said axis. Such rotation is accomplished by conventional epi-cyclic gearing between a rotatably driven propeller mounting and a relatively fixed gear.

More specifically, the present form of the invention includes a pair of brackets disposed in spaced, depending relation from the under-surface of a boat or the like. The brackets depend from an element which is indexable relative to the boat so that indexing of the element will dispose the brackets at a different angle with respect to the boat, and will affect steering of the boat.

Between the brackets, there is disposed a rotatably driven impeller mounting which carries a transverse shaft; and, the transverse shaft carries the impeller blades .for

rotation about the transverse shaft. The impeller blades are rotatable with the mounting, and simultaneously, independently rotatable with respect to the transverse shaft which is the axis of rotation of both impeller blades.

There is a gear fixed to one of the brackets; and there is a gear fixed to each of the impellers for rotation with its respective impeller. The fixed gear is engaged between the two impeller gears so that, as the mounting rotates, the impeller gears will be caused to roll around the fixed gear, causing rotation of the impellers on their axis in equal and opposite directions.

Of important significance in the present invention is the angular relation of radial extension of the impellers from their gears, and/or the relative orientation of enmeshment of the gears of the impellers with the relatively fixed gear. This relationship is such that, with the impeller supporting shaft in vertical position, both impellers will be in horizontal position parallel to the axis of the fixed gear. As the mounting rotates 180 degrees to reverse the vertical position of each impeller shaft, both impellers will move one-half cycle of revolution through a path of movement toward and from a mid-position in which the impellers extend at right angles from, and below, the axis of the fixed gear. Thus, in any 90 degree motion of the mounting from the position in which the impellers are parallel and disposed at 180 degrees to each other in a horizontal plane, the impellers will move to a parallel, uniformly independent, vertical position. This phenomenon by which neither blade in its angular rotation ever projects upwardly from the axis of the fixed gear is readily understood when it is realized that, in each 180 degrees of impeller shaft rotation, the upper and lower relationship of impellers is reversed. The operative principle of the present invention is base-d on this phenomenon.

Thus, it is among the primary objects of the present invention to provide novel and improved, simple, effective and efficient fluid propulsion means, and to provide a boat propeller actuated by such means. Numerous other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following specification taken with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a water craft equipped with the propulsion means of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the rear portion of the craft illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view through the bottom of the craft shown in FIG. 1 showing the mounting of the propulsion means of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view through the propulsion means of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3;

FIG. 5 is a vertical section taken on the lines 5-5 of FIG. 4; and,

FIGS. 6a-6d'are views illustrating successive positions of the impeller blades in operation.

In the present form of the invention the impeller unit is illustrated as the propeller for a small boat shown at 10 in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings. The impeller is mounted to depend from an indexable circular table 11 which is mounted and sealed within a conforming circular bearing arrangement indicated at 12, the table 11 forming a portion of the bottom of the boat.

The impeller unit is carried by spaced bearing brackets 14 and 16 which depend from the undersurface of the table 11. The right hand bracket 14, as it appears in FIG. 3, is formed to provide a housing for a drive shaft 18, and the lower end of the shaft 18 mounts a bevel gear 19 for meshing with a bevel gear 20, the gear 20 being afixed to and rotatable with an impeller mounting frame 22 which is here shown as of generally rectangular, hollow formation. The upper end of the shaft 18 is driven by a bevel gear 24 meshing with a companion bevel gear 25 on a drive shaft 26. The drive shaft 26 may be driven in any desired manner, as by the motor indicated at 27 and through the intermeshing bevel gears 28.

By this arrangement it will be seen that, upon rotation of the shaft 18, the mounting frame 22 will be bodily revolved between the brackets 14 and 16. The center 28 of the end of the mounting frame 22 fixedly mounts the bevel gear 20. The gear 20 is rotatably supported within the housing 29 which depends from the table 11; and, the opposite end 30 of the frame 22 is rotatably mounted, as by a shank 31, in the bracket 16 which de pends from the table 11.

The shank 31 is aifixed within the bracket 16 and extends through a central tubular casing 32. The casing 32 forms part of the impeller mounting frame 22, and is fixed thereto. At its forward end, the shank 31 is formed with a fixed bevel gear 34 which meshes with the bevel gears 35 and 36, the gears 35 and 36 being formed upon, and rigidly fixed with, the impeller blades 37 and 38 respectively. The tubular casing 32 is formed at its inner end (at the center of the frame 22) with a suitable circular housing 39 to enclose the bevel gears 34, 3.5 and 36, and the housing 39 forms a bearing for the geared hubs of the impellers 37 and 38. The impellers 37 and 38, with their gears 35 and 36, are mounted on, and are free to rotate with respect to, a transverse support shaft 42 which is mounted within inwardly projecting bosses 43 of the parallel sides 44 of the rotatable mounting frame 22.

In the operation of the device, we shall assume that the impellers 37 and 38 are in the downwardly directed position indicated in FIG. 6a, with the rear impeller 37 moving in a clockwise direction as indicated by the arrow, and with the forward impeller 38 moving in a counterclockwise direction as indicated by its arrow. The rotation of the mounting 22 by engagement of its fixed gear 28 with the driven gear 19 will rotate the mounting, as indicated by the arrow, to the position shown in FIG. 6b. In this position, impeller blade 37 will have been moved to the left equally and oppositely to the movement of the impeller 38 which will have been moved to the right. From the standpoint of propulsion it will be seen that, in such movement, both blades will have moved with the mount ing in a bodily clockwise direction looking from the left of FIGS. 611-601, and thus will have produced a propulsive thrust of the boat by such movement.

In a continuation of such rotary movement of the mounting to a full 90 degrees as indicated by FIG. 60, the blades will have assumed a horizontal position, with the blade 37 uppermost. In considering this motion of the blades it will be recognized that, in each 180 degrees of revolution of the mounting member, the blades will reverse their position, the blade 38, for instance, being in uppermost position when the mounting has moved 180 degrees from the position shown in FIG. 60. From the standpoint of propulsion it is important to note that, as the blades move from their horizontal position as shown in FIG. 60 (which may be assumedto be parallel with the water surface) to the position 6a (normal to the Water surface) the blades push rear-wardly against the water, thus effecting the propulsion of the boat. As the blades move from the position of FIG. 6a to the position of FIG. 60, the propelling force will gradually diminish until it is substantially zero at the position of FIG. 60.

Since the propulsive effect of the rotation of the mounting member is in a direction normal to its axis, it will be observed that the craft may be readily steered by altering the direction of such propulsion. This can be accomplished by rotary motion of the table 11, to which steering lines 50 may be attached as indicated in FIG. -2, such lines being extended over pulleys indicated at 51, then to a pilot wheel (not shown) located at the bow of the boat.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention provides a novel, simple, eifective and efficient propulsion impeller particularly adapted for boat propulsion. It will, of course, be understood that in the practice of the invention the blades may be formed of various pitches and tapers as may be desired. It further will be understood that in the practice of the present invention, numerous changes, modifications, and the full use of equivalents may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A boat propeller including a rotatable impeller mounting frame, means for rotating said frame, a pair of impellers, rotatably mounted on said frame for bodily rotation with said frame and for rotation on their own axes about a common axis normal to the axis of rotation of said frame and means for continuously rotating said impellers in equal and opposite directions as an incident to the continuous rotation of said frame.

2. The boat impeller as set forth in claim 1 in which 1 said last mentioned means includes a bevel gear on each of said impellers within said frame, a stationary bevel gear intermeshing with the bevel gears of said impellers and a stationary shank extending into said frame along the axis of rotation of said frames rigidly supporting said stationary bevel gear.

3. A. boat and boat impeller including a boat, a pair of spaced bearing brackets depending vertically from the bottom of the boat, a generally rectangular elongate frame rotatably mounted between said bracket, means on one of said brackets for rotating said frame on its elongate axis, a pair of oppositely rotatable impellers mounted on said frame for bodily rotation therewith and for rotation on a common axis normal to the axis of rotation of said frame, a bevel gear within said frame rotatable with each impeller, a fixed shank extending into said frame from the other of said brackets, and a fixed bevel gear on said shank engageable between said bevel gears of said impellers whereby said impellers will be rotated on their own axes in equal and opposite directions as an incident to the bodily rotation of said impellers with said frame.

4. The boat and boat impeller as set forth in claim 3 in which the brackets are mounted for bodily rotation, in unison with respect to the bottom of the boat whereby the boat may be steered by the directed propulsion of said impellers.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 552,613 1/1896 Holm 151 X 1,229,243 6/ 1917 Eberhardt. 1,947,560 2/1934 Manasek 170-149 3,101,692 8/1963 Snow 170-150 X 3,181,816 5/ 1965 Pfleiderer.

FOREIGN PATENTS 560,857 7/1923 France.

948,561 1/ 1949 France. 1,087,675 8/1954 France.

9,381 1910 Great Britain.

MARTIN P. SCHWADRON, Primary Examiner.

SAMUEL LEVINE, Examiner.

E. A. POWELL, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A BOAT PROPELLER INCLUDING A ROTATABLE IMPELLER MOUNTING FRAME, MEANS FOR ROTATING SAID FRAME, A PAIR OF IMPELLERS, ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME FOR BODILY ROTATION WITH SAID FRAME AND FOR ROTATION ON THEIR OUW AXES ABOUT A COMMON AXIS NORMAL TO THE AXIS OF ROTATION 